Airfix Sea Harrier FA/2 - who said they don't make up into nice models?
However, being a remould means the rest of the kit is the old FRS 1 tooled up some 15 years ago when CPG Corps were the owners of Airfix. As such, the original parts look a little basic when compared to the new tooling, all the panel lines on the wings and tail surfaces are raised so you'll need to keep your scriber nearby. The cockpit is basic and the ejector seat needs to be detailed or replaced with an aftermarket item. The outriggers are simple and in my sample suffered from sink marks that need filling, while the Sidewinders and their rails are plain. On the plus side, the older parts do feature a major alteration - the hinge lines for the flap and ailerons have been corrected and the auxiliary air intakes (behind the cockpit) have been added. As this sprue is featured in the FRS 1 and GR3 kits, it will be carried over to all future mouldings of these models too.
Jump to it!
'Amend where necessary and disguise where possible' a technique best summed up as 'sleight of eye'. To illustrate the point, I built an Airfix Sea Harrier FRS 1 a few years back for a museum and, rather than rescribe all the raised detail, I sanded it down until it was barely visible and then picked out the panel lines at the painting stage. Someone later commended me on the rescribing job I had done!
My first task was to bring the old FRS 1 parts up to the standard of the new tooling. The raised detail on the wings and tail planes was rescribed using a darning needle in a pin vice, guided by a small metal ruler. A couple of light passes were all the was needed, the surface was rubbed down smooth an the panels cleaned out using an Olfa P-Cutter, leaving the old kit parts looking as good as the new. There were a couple of odd shaped panels on the wing that I didn't rescribed, preferring to cut masks and spray these on later.
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 The vents behind the cockpit, drilled out and filed to shape. The auxiliary intake doors were also cut open. |
The intakes also lent themselves to instant improvement, least not the auxiliary doors which should hang down when the aircraft is parked. I followed Ray Rimell's lead by cutting the upper doors away as one big section, fixing the intakes to the fuselage halves and then adding slivers of plastic sheet to mark the doors out. I cut the slivers oversized, simply trimming off the excess and sanding smooth. The doors were lengths of plastic strip, tacked into place with liquid cement and then pushed down at an angle. All told, this was about a couple of hours work, but the results are worth it.
I'd decided early on to fit my model with intake blanking plates - partly to add a splash of colour, but also a dodge from painting and masking the interior of the intakes! I marked out their shape using the intake as a guide, taped two prices of plastic card together and cut them to shape, sanding the profile down. Rather than trying to prized everything apart, the tape was weakened by soaking the parts in white spirit and the two intake separated - a marching pair!
Into the 'pit
The kit supplies decals for the side consoles and instrument panel, convincing enough under a closed canopy and ideal for younger models. However, I decided to use Reheat Models' Modern Cockpit Control Placards (RH134) for the side consoles. I also added some sprue strips inside the fuselage to add a little structural detail. Rather than apply etched bezels to the panel and then trying to pick them out, I simply sprayed the fret flat black and attached each item to the grey-painted instrument panel with white glue.
The kit supplied seat has only a passing resemblance to the Martin Baker Mk.10 unit used in the Sea Harrier. Aftermarket alternatives are available, but I decided to brush up on my modelling skills and see what I could do with the kit seat. New cushions from sheet styrene as well as some plastic strip detailing quickly transformed the seat into something more representative. I didn't bother detailing the bottom sides as these are tight fit to the cockpit tub.
I painted the seat light grey wit dark green cushions and a darker headrest, more or less following photographs for guidance. Straps were added using masking tape with Reheat buckles.
Fan, fit and filler
Though the engine fan face wouldn't be seen on the finished model, it's useful as an internal bulkhead. However, I had to sand away some of the edges until the fuselage halves would fit together. I cleaned up the fuselage seam with a foam sanding block, a little filler was needed in the underside where the mating surfaces were slightly out of alignment.
I cut away the flaps on my model so that I could angle them down at a later stage. The wing to fuselage fit on my sample was good, but I still needed filler to blend everything together, more so as the upper surfaces of the Sea Harrier are 'seamless' in this respect.
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 The extra inboard wing fence after being smooth in with a touch of filler. |
With the fuselage halves together, I still wasn't happy with the kits airbrake and wheel well detail. I decided to scratch build some, drilling out the kit's 'solid' wells and making new ones from plastic sheet. It was a simple matter of measuring the opening, making a fold-up box and then dropping into place. Rib detail was added with plastic rod and strips. Again, the excess plastic around the edges was trimmed away and sanded smooth.
If you don't fancy going to this effort, or just want to hide the wheel wells (or lack of them) then you can fix the gear doors in the 'up' position. Talking to Sea Harrier pilots it seems that the position of the gear doors is usually down the pilot and weather the aircraft is being checked over. The airbrake, though, always hangs down and as the kit item looked a little bare, I fabricated some detail for the inner face from scraps of strips and sprue. The actuator arm was made from aluminium tube and brass rod.
SHAR mods
The rubbing paste for the tail planes are still absent - even on this FA 2 revision - so I cut them from plasticard. Making a matching pair is easier if you tape two pieces of styrene together, cut and sand to shape and them quickly soak in white spirit to weaken the adhesive. The locating slots on the tail planes were cut away and the plates fixed into place. The locating hole on the fuselage was also filled and hole drilled to accept a piece of brass wire so that I could set the tail planes to a more realistic angle.
The exhaust deflector plate is moulded as a solid part to fuselage on the kit wherein reality it's a piece of metal sheet that curves outwards, standing proud of the surface. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough plastic to allow me to remove the kit item, so I decided to 'disguise' it by careful painting later
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 A little plastic card, rod and strip transforms the airbrake. |
The area aft of the cockpit was also modified, with boundary air bleed vents drilled out and filed to shape, along with some plastic strip detailing. The APU vents in the kit barely discernible on the surface, so I drilled these out, clean them up with a file and added some brash mesh screen.
The new wing fences were added to the wing leading edges. You just cut off the unwanted vortex generator and drop the new leading edge section in place. Their design is quite ingenious, even if their execution means a little sanding and filling required. I also added the prominent fuel dump vent missing from the kit. Plastic rod fared in with a little filler did the trick.
The outriggers are a little basic and some mouldings features sink marks in the middle that need filling. The struts on the kit items are a little thick, but as I was making mine with the ground locking struts in place, this worked to my advantage - I left them as they were and just painted them red. Tie down rings were simply made from brass wire and fixed on with superglue.
Armed
As the AMRAAM missile and pylons were new features of the kit I decided to include them on the fuselage station with drop tanks and AIM 9 sidewinders on the wings. The AMRAAM's are accurate in shape, the fins are very thin and have a slight airfoil section to them which is a neat touch. They may look a little basic in shape, but then the real missiles are too. The pylon halves also fit together quite well, though I needed some white glue to plug some gaps around the edges where they met the fuselage.
I wasn't much taken with the old Sidewinders and launch rails, so I used those included in the Airfix 1:48 Buccaneer - the latter also yields a better pair of Sea Eagle missiles too. This might seem a little profligate, but I think it's fair to assume that any enthusiast interested in the Sea Harrier is also likely to have a Buccaneer (or two) salted away.
I cut the Sidewinder rails away from the Buccaneer pylons and added a new adapter from styrene strip. The rail was fixed to the kit pylon using superglue, followed up by a coat of liquid cement to 'weld' the pieces together.
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 Tailplane rubbing plates were added using plastic sheet, cut to shape. |
With the model now approaching the paint stage, I cleaned up the windscreen and canopy, masking them of with Tamiya tape applied overall, burnished down and then cut to shape. The cockpit was stuffed with tissue and given a coat of Maskol ready for the first couple of coats of Halfords Grey Primer and any rectifying work. That done, the instrument coaming was painted black, as were the frames of windscreen which was fixed into place with white glue. Time to wheel this SHAR into the paint shop...
Sea grey Harrier
At present the Sea Harrier FA 2 can be seen sporting two schemes, overall extra dark sea grey or medium sea grey (not Barley grey as often gets reported). I used Humbrol 165 as to my eye this is a good match. I sprayed on several thin coats, letting each one dry thoroughly before lightly rubbing down the surface with a piece of Scotchbrite.
A weathering coat of well thinned black was sprayed around the panel lines, being toned in with an overcoat of medium sea grey. The extended rear fuselage 'plug' was masked out and the edges sprayed a darker colour so that it stood out - it's a noticeable feature on almost all light grey FA 2's, though explanations seem to vary! I added some streaks and leak from oil paint, blended into the airflow with a broad sable brush. Talking to some SHAR pilots, it's clear that in this light grey scheme, the aircraft become dirty very quickly - a modellers delight.
I also went for variety in adding painting the drops tanks extra dark sea grey, with the starboard one retaining it's original white undersides - Neil Mercer's superb book The Sharp End features just such an aircraft on page 40. The new, separate radome makes painting a cinch - it was sprayed a grey/tan mix with an off-black lip and tip and then fixed to the fuselage.
The model was given a couple of misted coats of Halfords Clear Lacquer to get a gloss finish ready for the decals. The kit decal sheet is comprehensive, giving masking for five aircraft - three from 899 Squadron in a variety of 'mailed fist' emblems, and one each from 801 and 809 NAS, all in the medium sea grey finish. The exclusion of any dark grey SHAR's is a slight disappointment, but given that they use a different coloured set of stencils, perhaps economics were a factor here. The placement diagrams are clear , but the painting instructions still refer to Humbrol paint numbers only which is one area Airfix could really improve on.
The number of decals to be applied is quite staggering, even down a myriad of stencils for the pylons and missiles. The adhesive qualities in my sample were excellent, the varnish covering thin but strong. Some modellers have experienced the exact opposite with some Airfix decals - quality can vary across such a large production run and in any instance the remedy is to simply write to the manufacturer enclosing the sheet and explaining the problem.
I gave the decals another sealing coat of Clear Lacquer before finishing of with Humbrol Satin Cote for a nice sheen. Again, this varies from aircraft to aircraft - some have a definite sheen to them while others are dead matt with no reflection in the paint work.
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 Underside view showing scratchbuilt wheel well and airbrake interiors. (Click here for a larger image) |
Tag
I cut the anti-collision light on the top of the fuselage from an old
toothbrush, sanded and polished it to shape before adding with white glue.
The refuelling probe, stores and the other subassemblies were added as
were the flaps and tail planes (suitably angled). The intake blanks were
sprayed satin red, given wire handles and white-glued into place.
The last task was perhaps the most fun, if not eh most challenging - adding
Remove Before Flight (RBF) tags to the model. I was lucky to have an old
set of PP RBF tags which did the job effectively and quickly. Each tag
was given a locating pin made from wire and, following reference photo's,
was fixed on with a drop of superglue. Some old PP Sidewinder protective
covers, painted yellow, added the final splash of colour.
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 An Airfix SHAR FRS.1 build (almost) straight from the box for comparison and finished in custom decals as a Falklands warbird. (Click here for a larger image) |
Summary
Considering the inherent handicap of having to use the old FRS 1 as a
starting point, Airfix have done a decent job in trying to update it to
an FA 2. If you're the kind of modeller who didn't like the 1:48 Tornado
GR1/1B remould (which also had is lineage in the CPG era) and prefers
just blandly sticking state of the art kits together, then chances are
this Sea Harrier reworking isn't going to charm you either. But if you
don't mind putting in a little work and dusting off your modelling skills
to achieve a unique replica, then this updated SHAR is a welcome sight.
References:
Airfix Magazine - May 1984
The Sharp End - Neil Mercer
Flight International - September 30 1989
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